Rogue, Renegade And Rebel (In Her Paranormal Majesty’s Secret Service Book 1)

by Michael Anderle

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

  “Victoria, I—”

  Alexandria whirled around and glared at Porter, who supported Yasmine on her one good leg with his one working arm. He sighed as Alexandria melted through a door off the corridor and brought the pair into a quaint little room that was sparsely decorated with paintings and odd bits of furniture. She continued through the room and passed through another door, cocking her ear to ensure they had been left alone.

  “What the hell was that?” Victoria shouted the minute they were all in the room. She paced the rug, a dark cloud hanging over her. “What are we supposed to do now?”

  Yasmine remained quietly sitting on the floor, clutching her legs and lost in her own thoughts.

  Porter, however, shook his head and narrowed his eyes at Victoria. “You have the whole spectral kingdom at your command, and you can’t even contain one tiny mortal? Come on, Alexandria. This is a fucking joke.”

  For the first time, Alexandria’s confidence was shaken. She looked questioningly at Porter, struggling to maintain her facade. She looked over her shoulder and, once more satisfied they were indeed all alone, transformed before their eyes.

  Victoria disappeared, leaving behind a woman so beautiful it seemed impossible that she was dead. Dark hair flowed down her shoulders, and there was a twinkle in her dark eyes. She wore strange rags over her body, as though life had treated her harder than it should have.

  Porter shuffled uncomfortably as Alexandria’s eyes bore into his. A terrible darkness emanated from her body.

  “What did you two do, hmm?” Alexandria demanded. “Stood there like fucking lepers while Rogue performed her voodoo and escaped from our clutches.” She gave a pained howl and grabbed her head. “We had her! We had her!”

  “Well, we don’t, anymore,” Porter commiserated. “So, what are we going to do about it?”

  “Don’t give me that tone,” Alexandria snapped. “If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be in this predicament. ‘A sure thing,’ you said. ‘Rely on her principles,’ you said. Well, look where that got us.”

  Alexandria paced the room, a hand running through her thick locks as she struggled to think. “We have to look at the positives. Rogue and her people still don’t know my true identity. Victoria’s men and women still have no idea of what the truth is behind the crown.”

  “That’s something at least,” Porter admitted.

  Alexandria nodded slowly, a finger on her chin. “I’ll have to give an address. Let the spectral kingdom know Rogue is out there spreading venom against the crown. Nobody is to believe a word she says. Then we find her. We find her fast.”

  “How?” Yasmine asked, speaking for the first time. She sounded exhausted, her eyes devoid of any real emotion. “She’s gone. There’s no way of finding her.”

  “Not necessarily true,” Porter countered. “We’ve still got the prisoner.”

  Alexandria’s eyes lit up. “Oooh! I knew there was a reason I kept you two around.”

  Porter scowled. “Hey, make no mistake. You wouldn’t even be here if it hadn’t had been for us. Without us, you would never have been able to work your way into the court. Don’t forget who trained you, who taught you everything you needed to know, who found you, and who ensured this plan worked from start to finish.”

  Alexandria suddenly deflated, a small laugh escaping her lips. She sauntered over to Porter with an exaggerated wiggle in her hips and stopped just inches away from him.

  She knew her beauty intoxicated him. She wondered how difficult it had been to kiss her as she took on the visage of Victoria. How hard he’d had to concentrate to remember her true form. All of this while a fat man slobbered on her bed.

  She traced a finger down his cheek. “I couldn’t thank you enough,” she whispered. “For finding me. For removing Victoria. For giving me a second lease of death. How could I ever forget that?”

  Porter’s eyes widened as she kissed his lips, pulling him close. His eyes darted to Yasmine, who stared at them both open-mouthed.

  “Are you serious?” Yasmine shouted, pushing herself awkwardly to a standing position. She hopped over and shoved the pair them apart.

  Alexandria gave a coy smirk and stepped back. “What’s the problem, darling?”

  Yasmine ignored her and hit Porter’s chest. “All this time, I thought we were working together so we could direct the paranormal court, and you’ve been off tonguing her?”

  “To be fair,” Alexandria remarked, “I’m not always a woman…”

  Alexandria cycled through an impressive array of avatars in front of their eyes. One minute she was Alexandria, the next she was a decorated war vet, then a teenage boy, a middle-aged man with a briefcase, a hipster, Justin Timberlake, even a seven-foot-tall basketball player.

  “I thought we meant more to each other than that,” Yasmine accused Porter, hurt lacing her words. “I got taken as a fucking hostage by the most powerful mortal we’ve ever known, and you laid my life on the line so you could chance her capture. You risked my fucking life.” She looked down. “ And I only have one leg!”

  “You don’t have a life anymore, and your leg will grow back, just as my arm will,” Porter replied darkly. “You’re a specter, remember? And why wouldn’t I risk everything when I’ve worked so hard at ensuring the kingdom is ours for the taking?”

  He grabbed her hand in his. “For years, the world has been under the delusion that the real Victoria is on the throne. Our plan has worked elegantly for decades. You think I’m going to risk losing all that just because some psychopathic mortal with a God complex thinks she knows better than us?”

  Porter released her hand and straightened. “The future of the spectral world is poised on the edge of a knife, and now is the moment which will decide which way the paranormal court falls. If Rogue is allowed to act… If she so much as nudges us in the wrong direction, this is all over.”

  Yasmine stared unblinkingly at Porter. When she spoke, her words were barely audible. “You promised we’d do this together.”

  Porter raised his hands defensively. “I admit that over time, some things changed. But I still love you.”

  “Pah!” Alexandria exclaimed.

  Porter took a deep breath. “Please, Yasmine, understand it from my point of view. We’re so close to eliminating the threat, and then we’ll be right back where we were. In the driver’s seat.”

  Yasmine’s eyes flicked from Porter to Alexandria.

  Alexandria waved her hand and gave a sarcastic wink.

  Yasmine looked at the floor, then nodded. “You thought you could have it all.” She glanced into his eyes. “But you were wrong. I’m out.”

  She turned and hopped from the room. Heels would have made for a more dramatic exit, but she was down a foot.

  The sound of Porter’s desperate pleas faded with the slamming of the door.

  Kensington, London

  The world dissolved around them. For several long minutes, all Jennie was aware of was the black smog and a rushing whoosh as though she were speeding through a tunnel. Her feet didn’t touch the floor, and she allowed herself to be taken in that moment of immaterialism.

  There were few moments in Jennie’s life where she felt she could let go. For years she searched for the answer to inner peace, and she had made great waves in understanding the fundamentals of meditation and learning to harness her own mind.

  But to be totally free—that was a rare euphoria.

  It was out of her hands now. As the smoke had emerged, Jennie searched for some kind of energy to latch onto and found nothing. Nothing more than a mystic air that cocooned them and shrouded them in its warmth. Maybe they were traveling through London. Maybe they were being taken through a separate dimension.

  It didn’t matter. All that mattered was the calm bathing them all.

  Momentary bliss is something worth savoring, Jennie thought, remembering the words of her former instructor. Take the moments and stretch them, emerge yourself in them
. When they come, it is a blessing. Good things happen to those who listen to the universe.

  Was this the universe responding to Jennie now? Jennie had experienced various kinds of phenomena people would likely call magic, but could this be a new kind? Some physical manifestation of a universe that had gifted her powers and now protected her in her time of need?

  Somehow Jennie didn’t think so. She had an inkling, but it wouldn’t be until they once again hit solid ground that she would know for sure.

  When the end did come, it was with a suddenness that unsettled the group. Jennie’s feet connected with the earth and she folded to her knees, using her hands to support her landing.

  Some of the others were not so graceful. Baxter collapsed onto his back, Carolyn rolled as though she’d just jumped down a hill, Lupe landed on his ass and hissed in pain. Angus, Paige, and the other Obake toppled on top of each other in an ungraceful pile.

  The only other specter to land gracefully was Feng Mian, who knelt stoically on the floor, having allowed his knees to take the impact. He placed his hands on the earth and bowed, sharing a silent prayer of thanks.

  Carolyn moaned. “What the hell just happened?”

  “Where are we?” Lupe grunted, massaging his lower back with a hand.

  One by one, the specters pulled themselves to their feet and looked around their surroundings.

  They were in a large chamber with walls, ceiling, and floors made of packed dirt. Roots lined the walls like veins, and there were several candles along the edges of the room, flickering in a ghostly light.

  Baxter turned to Jennie. “No…”

  Jennie grinned. “I guess so.”

  “What? What is it?” Carolyn asked, then screamed as smoke began to appear in the center of the room, followed by the sudden appearance of some greater coalescing, flapping wings of smoke like an enormous bird.

  The smoke took solid shape and revealed the wraith who now hovered and stared at Jennie.

  “You’ve changed your mind?” Jennie asked.

  The wraith stared at her.

  “Changed their minds?” Carolyn grabbed Baxter’s arm with alarm on her face. “What’s she talking about? What is that?”

  Jennie moved closer to the wraith. She spoke slowly, enunciating each syllable. “Have. You. Changed. Your. Mind?”

  The wraith gave an almost imperceptible nod.

  Jennie’s whole body relaxed as if the weight of everything had rolled off of her. “Thank you. You don’t know what this will mean for us.”

  The wraith now spoke in a voice devoid of emotion and tone, the sound like air whistling down an empty tunnel. “Our line is tarnished. A threat among our kind is in play. You must protect what is ours and restore our legacy.”

  Jennie turned to the others and spoke behind her hand. “Talk about a tall order. Can you believe this guy?”

  What few chuckles there were soon dissipated. The wraith waved its arm and a scroll appeared. It was covered in writing, with space at the bottom to sign.

  “Name your conditions,” Jennie told him.

  The wraith answered without hesitation. “Eternal peace.”

  Jennie considered this, then took the spectral quill offered by the wraith and scrawled at the bottom. “So be it.”

  The moment the parchment was signed, the wraith vanished from the room in a puff of smoke and left Jennie, Lupe, and the specters behind.

  A long silence followed since no one was quite sure what to say, until Carolyn broke the quiet. “Will somebody please tell us what the fuck is going on?”

  Chapter Seventy-Four

  Kensington, London

  They sat in the chamber for a long while, deep in discussion about everything that had occurred that night.

  “I always knew something wasn’t quite right,” Jennie declared. “There was always something off about the three of them together, but I thought it was more of a love triangle situation. I would never have guessed Queen Victoria had been replaced by an Obake.”

  “You had zero idea that Victoria was an Obake?” Paige asked. “Like, none?”

  Jennie shook her head. “Of course not. How do you detect an Obake? None of you worked it out in the dungeons, did you?”

  Paige looked at the floor.

  Jennie frowned as she thought back. “Porter and Yasmine have been at Victoria’s side for as long as I can remember. Since way back before the Beatles rose to fame—who, incidentally, are not the best kissers.”

  “Excuse me?” Baxter laughed.

  “Not now, Bax. They were brought to her…hmm, it must have been around 1936, when George V would have been due to take the crown—not that anyone remembers that, of course. All that business would have been swept under the carpet.

  “Once they took her side, things got a bit more turbulent. At first, I thought Victoria had just been blessed with a new lease on life, but looking back, her mannerisms did alter.”

  Carolyn shuffled on the floor. “How do you mean?”

  “Victoria was never the most active ruler,” Jennie explained. “She was famed for being somewhat…comfortable in her ways.” A ripple of laughs went around the room. “So, to see her roaming enthusiastically around the palace, barking orders, and laughing with the staff was a bit of an adjustment.”

  “Are you saying that was when the Obake came in and took Victoria’s place?” Baxter asked. “Because if that’s the case, what the hell have they done with the real queen? Surely someone knows what happened to her?”

  Jennie mulled this over while the other specters waited expectantly. To them, it was like storytime at Grandpa’s, only with real stakes that would affect the whole spectral empire.

  “That’s the question,” Jennie mused. “It all must have happened around the same time, which means Victoria must be hidden somewhere in the palace. They must have her captive somewhere.” Jennie gasped and put a hand to her head, “Which would go toward backing up my theory about the oaths.”

  “What?” Lupe exclaimed. “How?”

  Carolyn answered for her. “Because for over sixty years, people have been obeying the command of an imposter, not the word of the true queen. Jennie, this is huge!”

  “Bigger than we first thought,” Feng Mian commented quietly. “The Obake are an ancient order. For one of them to infiltrate the palace is sacrilege.”

  The specters began to murmur among themselves. Paige and Angus looked pained as they tried to understand how one of their own could have been existing under the radar in London for so long.

  “So, where do the wraiths come into it all?” Carolyn asked, earning the group’s quiet once more.

  Jennie gave a small smile. “The wraiths are an ancient form of specter, created when a family line is bound together in the hollows of the ground. Blood honors blood, and with the gift of remaining with family comes the curse of the form you have seen before you.”

  Baxter took over. “These wraiths were the reason Jennie and me split from you guys several days ago. We asked for their assistance in breaking into the palace, and they refused to help.”

  “Why do we need them?” Lupe asked. “If they’re bound by blood to remain here, why would they help us?”

  “Many reasons,” Jennie replied cryptically. “The primary reason being that they bear the gift of invisibility, and that’s something we can certainly make use of, isn’t it?”

  “I’ll say,” Carolyn uttered.

  “What do you think they’ll do now?” Angus asked. “The crown, that is. They’ve seen us. They know we’re here. Their security is going to be tighter than ever—as if it wasn’t tight enough already.”

  “I’ve been thinking about this,” Jennie replied. “But I don’t like the answer I’m about to give. They’re going to go for George, harder and more viciously than ever. We’ve got to pull all our talents together to ensure we can make this work. When it does, we will finally have some answers and be on track for setting the world straight again.”

  “What do yo
u think those answers are?” Carolyn asked. “What else can we possibly unveil?”

  Jennie lifted her hands. “I don’t know the answers. What I do know is that whatever dirt is down there, it needs to be dug up. Maybe the queen hasn’t been behind the conspiracy, but somewhere along the way, something has gone wrong with the court. It’s on us to fix that.”

  The specters nodded in unison.

  “What if George cracks?” Baxter asked with concern. “It’s not like they know anything about where we are now. They don’t know about the wraiths, or what we’re planning to do next.”

  “No, they don’t,” Jennie replied flatly. “But they might extract the location of my hideout. If that happens, I’m going to be extremely pissed if they break my stuff.”

  “More pissed than you already are?” Carolyn asked.

  Jennie smirked. “Sweetie, you haven’t seen me pissed yet.

  When everyone had finalized their plans, a single wraith led them back through the crypt and out into the abandoned patch of the graveyard.

  The sun was beginning to rise. A burning orange and pink stained the sky. A few stars remained behind, reluctant to join their brothers and sisters in sleep.

  The wraiths were waiting for them outside the mausoleum entrance. A handful of them, led by Canute, the largest of their order, hovered above the dew-kissed grass.

  “We’re ready,” Jennie told him.

  Canute breathed deeply, the sound a rattle in his throat. “You are certain this is your path?”

  Jennie nodded. “Yes. This is also your path.”

  Canute gave a slight nod, and the next thing they knew, the wraiths encircled them all.

  “Hold on to your balls,” Jennie muttered.

  The wraiths became immaterial and encircled them, and the wind began whipping at them as they were pulled rapidly into a darkness that resolved into the realm of smoke.

  The journey didn’t seem so long now that Jennie was prepared for the method of travel. When they touched solid ground again, they found themselves in a large attic filled with old treasures and covered in dust and cobwebs.